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The “KIT Gründerschmiede” (Founders’ Forge) project aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial culture at KIT. It has been funded within the scope of the “EXIST” programme since 2013. Over the course of the past three years, various measures have been implemented, and their first results are becoming apparent. KIT has reached the third place in the “Gründungsradar” ranking by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors’ association for the promotion of humanities and sciences in Germany) and tied place with the start-up RESTUBE GmbH for first place in the renowned Deutschen Gründerpreis awards in 2015. The second round of funding has been approved on this basis, as continuity and the development of successful measures is one of the main principles of the association. We are delighted about the continued sponsorship from EXIST IV and the implied success of our strategy.

“Everything started in the summer of 2013, when we wanted to go on a trip to Portugal and encountered difficulties finding a suitable holiday apartment because there were simply too many options,” Johannes Siebers explained during the KIT Entrepreneurship Talk on 11 February 2016. Together with his brother, Michael Siebers, he founded Holidu GmbH a year later – a platform for searching and comparing holiday homes in Europe.

One of the first projects that has been funded successfully through KITcrowd is “Bread for Perspective” (Brot für eine Perspektive) by the “Engineers Without Borders” (EWB) university group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The group had made it their goal to build a bakery for war widows in the north of Sri Lanka. This bakery is intended to secure the livelihoods of the Tamil women and their families, who still suffer from the consequences of the devastating civil war that took place in the region between 1983 and 2009. Over the course of ten months, the team collected 70,000 Euros in donations, most of which came through KITcrowd. We interviewed three EWB members after their return from Sri Lanka.

For five KIT teams, everything revolves around advancing their startup project. They are taking part in the upCAT#4, a 12-week intensive program for startups and spin-offs. This is where prospective startup teams work on accelerating their market entry. The fourth KIT accelerator is lead by Dr. Gerda Frank and Petra Nitschke from the Center for Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship (CIE).

Together with internal and external speakers, they share startup-relevant knowledge and a variety of methods that can be directly used in the following practice and mentoring sessions. The teams receive additional tips from experts in the industry and economy, so-called mentors. From December 7th-10th, 2015, the kickoff week took place – the start of the program. For one week, the teams received input in order to specify their business ideas. We met the teams at the beginning of the program.

Three minutes – about the duration of an elevator ride – that is the time frame available for founders and young entrepreneurs at the Elevator Pitch BW to present their business idea. Ten startup teams rose to the preliminary regional challenge. Two KIT teams won over the jury and about 100 listeners with their poised presentations.